The present invention relates to cooking utensils for microwave ovens.
Microwave cooking has become increasingly popular in recent years because certain foods can be cooked more quickly in microwave ovens than in conventional gas or electric ovens. Microwave ovens cook foods by producing high frequency, electromagnetic energy fields within the oven enclosure. The energy fields cause the molecules making up the food to oscillate at a greater rate, thereby producing heat.
Unlike conventional ovens, the microwave oven is not pre-heated, and the temperature within the oven near the surface of the food being cooked is rarely high enough to "sear" or "brown" certain types of food. Therefore, microwave ovens have not replaced conventional ovens. Large meat foods, such as turkey, roast beef, ham and chicken, are rarely cooked in microwave ovens due to a lack of the type of surface coloration and texture that consumers expect.
Consequently, the majority of microwave ovens are utilized for quickly reheating foods, thawing out frozen foods and cooking a limited variety of certain types of foods. This has led to the sale of a great number of very small, inexpensive microwave ovens. Typically these are just a supplement to a conventional gas or electric oven. A very common size microwave oven cooking enclosure is approximately ten inches deep, ten inches wide, and six inches high.
The increasing prevalence of microwave ovens has produced an abundance of specially prepared frozen foods. Frequently entire meals, or portions, are frozen in special microwave transparent containers. Even various low-calorie, diet-type meals are available. Such frozen, microwave ready foods are typically ninety percent (90%) cooked; and the microwave oven thaws them out and finishes cooking them in a very short time.
Because of the large number of small microwave ovens and the increasing availability of foods specially designed for microwave cooking, a need exists for a cooking utensil that will maximize the cooking capacity of the limited volume of the great majority of microwave ovens.
Many utensils have been designed for enhancing the cooking of strip-types of foods, such as bacon. Typically, these have taken the form of raised "racks" which allow draping of the bacon over raised surfaces or between leaves or "fins". Most such devices raise the bacon so that grease produced during cooking drips down and away from the food. Coincidentally, because of the overlapping structure, some of the devices enable the user to cook more bacon or patty-type food than would be possible on a flat surface that is the same size as the bottom or resting surface of the raised bacon rack.
Some of the bacon racks are adapted or adaptable for use in microwave ovens. Most were initially designed to be inserted in conventionally heated ovens. They are frequently characterized as "bacon broilers".
While some of the previous cooking utensils could enhance the cooking efficiency of small microwave ovens, they are not being utilized in that capacity One reason is that their structures fail to offer the flexibility needed to cook more than one type of food at one time.
Moreover, such utensils are typically complex and intricate, having substantial cleaning and maintenance requirements that are incompatible with time-saving microwave cooking.
Accordingly, it is the primary object of the present invention to provide an adjustable fin bacon rack that allows strip, or patty-types of food to be cooked in greater numbers than on a comparably sized flat surface, while, at the same time, affording a variably sized flat surface for cooking other types of food.
It is another object to provide an adjustable fin bacon rack wherein the components that form the rack snap fit together to facilitate disassembly and cleaning.
It is yet another object to provide an adjustable fin bacon rack, commensurate with the aforementioned objects, which utilizes a food enclosing cover to prohibit liquid from splattering off the food being cooked and onto the surfaces of the oven enclosure.
The above and other objects and advantages of this invention will become more readily apparent when the following description is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.